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This has always been about a minor-league hockey team in a major-league town, a story of falls from grace and blue-chip careers on the rise, of battles against the odds, of finding ways to keep going.

If it wasn’t a hockey team, the scene would be the proverbial saloon in a dusty, two-bit western movie filled with gunslingers and lawmen, worn hookers and wind-burned homesteaders, all imagining a better place to be.

The best part for the AHL Toronto Marlies, with the Maple Leafs in the playoff hunt and the Blue Jays loading up with big name talent, is that this team of relative no-names has not been forgotten.

So, on Tuesday night this week, with Oklahoma City in town, there were 6,160 fans in the Ricoh stands, even though the parent Leafs were looking to clinch a playoff berth in Washington and Josh Johnson was on the mound for the Jays just blocks away at the Rogers Centre.

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Too many made the mistake last year of thinking the Marlies didn’t really matter in the larger scheme of all things Maple Leaf, that good players in the AHL were that and nothing more, that a run to the Calder Cup final was mildly amusing and nothing more.

Well, that was wrong. The AHL regular season will wrap up this weekend and when it does the Marlies will head back to the playoffs, while still having played a big part in getting this year’s Leafs back to NHL respectability.

Their story matters. That we have learned.

The Long Way Back

The final seconds against the Oke City Barons are winding down in what has been a dreary, scrambly game. While Mike Komisarek jousts in front, Paul Ranger swats a crazily bouncing puck to safety, and the Marlies hold on for a 2-1 victory, their 41st of the season.

Four years ago, they were both front-line NHL defencemen, Komisarek starting as a Montreal Canadien in the 2009 NHL All-Star Game, Ranger logging significant minutes on Tampa Bay’s blueline.

Now, they’ve taken weirdly different paths to the same place. This night they are tethered in competition and uncertainty over where they’re headed next.

Ranger, 28, chooses not to explain why he disappeared from the game or why he came back. One suspects he is in a search for himself as much as a hockey future.

Komisarek, who still draws a $3.5 million salary, has a simpler task. At 31, he’s just trying to relocate his game, seeking to restore his reputation.

“It’s weird when people come to you, whether it’s family or friends, and they feel sorry for you,” he says. “Well, I don’t want any of that s---. I’m here, I’m playing the game every day, I’m working, I’m still learning.

“It’s just a little weird playing with guys who have a 1994 birthdate when you were born in ’82.”

He is this year’s Colton Orr, drummed out of the NHL, written off for good by many.

“I wouldn’t change this whole scenario. I don’t hold grudges against (Ron Wilson) or Randy (Carlyle) or this organization,” he says.

“People say, yeah, but you’ve got a few bucks. But that doesn’t change your mentality. I came from a blue-collar family, immigrants from Poland. I don’t take things for granted. My dad came here with just the clothes on his back, not knowing the language, not knowing anyone. Those are my roots. That’s where I come from.”

The Leader

Three seasons in one. That’s what this has been for Dallas Eakins.

Eakins started last fall with, by AHL standards, a loaded roster including Jake Gardiner, Nazem Kadri, captain Ryan Hamilton, proven scorer Keith Aucoin and free-agent arrival Mike Kostka. By early January, all were gone, marking the beginning of a second season of adjustment and searching for replacements.

Now we are in the third season. On Eakins’ bench against Oklahoma City are nine raw rookies, five of whom were playing major junior hockey last month.

In all, 44 players have dressed for the Marlies this season. University of North Dakota captain Andrew MacWilliam, recently signed, will make it 45 sometime this week. Another kid to break, to teach.

Eakins just keeps on winning, pushing and prodding, encouraging and kicking ass, applying the lessons he learned from Roger Neilson and during his own 17-year, 18-team odyssey through pro hockey.

Last week, as he prepared to fly with the team to Abbotsford, B.C., his 4-year-old daughter suddenly took ill. Shivering and complaining of neck pain, he rushed her to Toronto East General. There were fears of meningitis, visions of the worst possible scenario.

It turned out to be a less serious infection, and after three days in hospital, she went home, and he went to Abbotsford to get back to worrying about his older children, few of whom probably ever worry much about him.

He’s been everywhere

Drew MacIntyre remembers the room like he’s still lying in it, staring at the ceiling.

He’s in a one-bedroom hotel unit in Reading, Pa., a town described by U.S. census takers as having one of the highest shares of citizens living in poverty in the country.

His wife lies beside him, and as he contemplates his future a decade after leaving the Sherbrooke juniors to pursue pro hockey, the P.E.I. native calculates how far he can stretch the $525 a week he’s making playing for the ECHL Reading Royals.

“My baby in one corner in a crib, my little girl in another corner on a bed, me and my wife in the other bed,” he recalls. “Every day I’d come home thinking, ‘What am I doing here? What am I doing to my family?’”

With four NHL mop-up appearances under his belt in the past five years, MacIntyre started the year trying something different by going to the KHL and joining its Prague franchise.

It was a new start in Europe after his worst pro season ever. The NHL lockout was on, so Zdeno Chara was there. Then MacIntyre busted an ankle during an off-ice workout in a parking lot. When he recovered, the team had signed another goalie.

“So I came home. I thought it would be a couple of days and I’d be back at it,” he says. “A month later I was still at home, practising with the University of P.E.I. team. Central League teams wouldn’t take me. I literally fell off the map.”

Finally, Reading called in early January. He played well, and was briefly called up to the AHL Hershey squad. Maybe somebody would notice his name on the transactions list. Then back to Reading.

Up in Toronto, James Reimer injured his knee, leaving Ben Scrivens to take over as No. 1 and Jussi Rynnas as his backup. With only Mark Owuya under contract, Eakins and the Marlies had to find a body, and Leaf goaltending consultant Rick St. Croix remembered MacIntyre.

Since arriving in mid-February, the 29-year-old MacIntyre has been nothing short of brilliant in 20 appearances with a miserly 1.88 goals-against average and a sparkling .930 save percentage. He’s now No. 1 with the Marlies and has gone from a tryout contract to a two-way NHL deal.

If either Reimer or Scrivens goes down, he’s headed to the ACC.

“I’m thankful. I’ve learned a lot of lessons and it’s been very humbling. I think somebody’s trying to teach me something,” says MacIntyre.

“My wife said just keep trying. For her to say that after 10 years of bouncing around is amazing. I’m reading R.A. Dickey’s book right now. He wrote about his wife, and I thought, my wife said the exact same things. She said don’t quit.”

Nowadays, Dickey works just around the corner. Perhaps MacIntyre should drop by sometime and compare notes. So far, no sign of any 60 Minutes cameras for him.

The other leader

Mike Zigomanis would like to believe he has something to do with the success of Randy Carlyle’s Leafs this season.

Zigomanis played a significant role, after all, on last year’s Marlies team, helped shape a team culture that in turn helped shape youngsters like Kadri, Gardiner, Scrivens and Matt Frattin.

“You hope that the higher powers notice that,” says Zigomanis. “I know my role is here. We’re still doing well. We’re still drawing the crowds, still playing good hockey.”

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